Tennesseans Recruited For Study On Chronic Pain And Opioid Use

A physician at Fort Bliss works with a pain patient. Many organizations, including the military, have been trying to reduce the use of opioids to treat chronic pain.

Jennifer Clampet
/ Army Medicine via Flickr

Researchers are turning to Tennessee to find a middle ground on the use of opioids for treating chronic pain. A new study is recruiting 1,000 patients in Tennessee and North Carolina who are taking opioids for chronic pain — a move that comes at a time of conflicting opinions about whether addictive narcotics should even be used to treat long-term pain, unless it's cancer-related.

The researchers from Vanderbilt, Duke and the University of North Carolina will split the pain patients into two groups. Both will continue to take opioids. But one set will have extensive talks with their doctor about addiction and dosage to make joint decision. The other patients will add group therapy to their medication in an effort to help manage of their pain through positive thoughts and behaviors.

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TennCare has tightened controls on opioid prescriptions in recent years, and the state's Medicaid program plans to go a step further next year. It's an effort to decrease the use of highly addictive narcotics — and save some money.

The combining of powerful drugs — both purposeful and unintentional — is making Tennessee’s opioid epidemic even more deadly. The latest figures out this month show 2016 was another record year for overdoses in the state — more than 1,600 people died. And experts say risky drug cocktails are compounding the problem.